Elon Musk said Monday he will give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in America next year, announcing the pledge in a post on X and calling it the first of many.
“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many.”
Friday’s close put SpaceX at $146.03 a share. Multiply that price by the number of children in the country — about 73 million under-18s, by Census Bureau figures cited by CNN — and the pledge works out to roughly $10.7 billion.
How the shares would reach children — who would qualify, and how stock can be transferred to a minor — Musk did not say.
The post came a day after Anthropic said it would set aside at least 5% of its shares for a new Public Benefit Fund. Musk replied on X that he recommended giving shares directly to the public, and added that this is what he would be doing.
Anthropic said its fund could make large donations to nonprofit groups or direct distributions to specific populations, according to CNN, and could help offset the effect of artificial intelligence on jobs.
SpaceX began trading publicly in June in what CNN called the biggest initial public offering in history.
The pledge also follows an earlier donation tied to Trump Accounts, the federal savings and investment program for children. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and her husband have pledged SpaceX shares for roughly two million children taking part in the program, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This month the Treasury Department automatically signed up millions of children under 18 for Trump Accounts, according to CNN. For children born from 2025 through the end of 2028, the government adds a one-time $1,000 contribution.
The pledge lands a day before SpaceX reports third-quarter earnings, on Tuesday.
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